Rauf Aregbesola, the former governor of Osun State, said on Saturday that his administration had no debt when he left office in 2018.
Aregbesola, currently the minister of interior, responded to the assertion attributed to Bola Oyebamiji, the former commissioner for finance during the tenure of the governor-elect Gboyega Oyetola.
Aregbesola said the two significant loans he took while in office had been liquidated in a statement released by his media assistant, Sola Fasure, on Saturday. He continued, "They were the Sukkuk loans, and the other was long-term concessionary facility by the Federal Government which have a long span repayment term.
“The deductions are minimal, not those that will infringe on the state's finances.
Reacting to the controversial debt of N18 billion loan collected by the Oyetola-led administration, the minister said, “I will suggest that they look at all the loans and get to the Accountant-General of the state at Abere. I think the Accountant General or the Permanent Secretary (Finance) would have better information because it is the Accountant-General that raised a memo based on the query of Governor Adeleke.
“He is the most knowledgeable about the loans by the state as the custodian of the account of the state. They should count Aregbesola out of it.”
Speaking further, Aregbesola stressed that matter is between the Adeleke and Oyetola administrations because his debts have been liquidated.
“I did not take the N18 billion loan after the election. Oyetola took some other loans, including salary support from the Federal Government,” he added.
The minister maintained that they caused the problem for themselves, adding, “If Oyetola had set up a transition committee and had cooperated well with the incoming governor after he lost the election, there would have been a smooth change of government.
“They would have compared notes, and there would be no rancour. But he (Oyetola) was busy sowing mines on the path of the incoming governor, creating problems for him, and spending money with reckless abandon. What did he do with N18 billion? Now the new government is fighting back. If the new government takes the matter up to the EFCC, there will be problems for the Oyetola administration.
Aregbesola beseeched both Adeleke and Oyetola to leave him out of their problems because out of the three loans he took, two have been liquidated.